


Not Seeing The Problem Here

by agentsimmons



Category: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Misunderstandings, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 12:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5163584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm going to call it off with Kathy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Seeing The Problem Here

**Author's Note:**

> This is shmoopy and I actually prefer Kathy as the intended beard from the very get go (since the whole film is about the lies and perceptions of Old Hollywood), but I wanted to make Kathy adorable and understanding and write a "Don stops trying to be hetero" ficlet instead. Idk.

"I'm going to call it off with Kathy."

Don says it so casually while they're going over a new arrangement for a song that just wasn't working previously that it doesn't even register in Cosmo's mind what's been said until a moment after he hums out a, "That's nice."

Then his eyes widen and his fingers come down flat on the keys of the piano.

"What do you mean you're going to call it off with Kathy?"

Don just shrugs. "Exactly what I said." Then Don gives him a strange look. "Say, you've been hanging out too close to the orchestra pits again. Your brains are jumbled more than usual if you need me to explain what that means."

Cosmo gives him a sharp look in return. "Not so much the what as the why. I thought R.F. was banking on wedding bells."

"And here you said you didn't understand the why," Don says with a cheeky grin before moving away from the piano, likely toward the couch just a little beyond Cosmo.

Cosmo spins round on his piano bench and watches the other man sink down into the seating. He studies him for a moment.

"Don, what is this about? Cold feet?"

"Not sure that's the term for it, but it's one way of looking at it."

Cosmo scrunched his face in confusion. "I thought you two were the happily ever after couple. The whole world sure seems to think so."

"If it eases your conscience, I thought so too. Was just wrong is all." He sounds so nonplussed that Cosmo doesn't push the issue. It's his business after all.

"No, no, it's not my conscience that needs eased here." He holds up his hands in surrender before slapping them back down on his knees.

Don looks at him, or through him – Cosmo can't tell, before looking back at his copy of the sheet music.

"Mine doesn't need eased either. R.F. will just have to deal with it."

Cosmo rolls his eyes. "Oh, sure. Pantheon of understanding, that one. I can see it now." Don glances up as Cosmo spreads his hands widely to mimic the staging of an elaborate scene. "Romeo leaves Juliet at the altar. Decides their families are just too different. Thousands of fans crying over the end of their romance. Will they be able to put aside their petty disagreement to make movies together? Who will have the joy of stepping out with Miss Selden now? Who was it that came between them?" Cosmo drops his hands and shakes his head. "And seeing as you haven't been seen out with more than a handful of other actresses in all the time you and Kathy have been a public item, I can just see my name tossed around by the more sordid members of the press." He tries to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but fails. So instead he hopes Don misinterprets it.

Don smiles in a way that lights up his eyes. "Probably. But nobody will ever believe it."

It's not the response Cosmo was expecting.

~

Cosmo isn't even sure at first he should be having an intimate lunch date with Kathy without Don, especially given what he now knows. But she asks him and he decides at the very least if they're spotted together maybe he’ll be linked to Kathy instead of Don and that's a small relief in the grand scheme of things.

He's even less sure when Kathy casually says over the small salad she's permitted to eat, “Don is going to call it off.”

“I know,” he says, guard down. Then he stammers out an, “Oh, I mean… That is… Wait. You know already?”

“Mhm,” she replies pluckily.

“Okay. And you're not upset?”

“Oh, goodness, no,” she says with a disarming laugh and flap of one hand. “Why should I be?”

“I got the impression you were pretty crazy about him.” Cosmo feels a little like he's pointing out the obvious.

Kathy's face scrunches up into a pondering look at that. “Well, now, maybe I was _a little_ in love with him at the first. But things like that can't always be helped.” She shrugs. “But I've known for a while now so it helped lessen the blow. I've been prepared for this for a while. And, honestly…” She pauses and then giggles cutely in a way that makes him want to protect her like a sister but otherwise does nothing for him. “Thinking back on everything, it just makes sense.”

“I wish I could say the same thing.” He scratches his head.

For a brief moment her cheery expression falters. She looks at him like that was the wrong response.

Then as if nothing had happened she says, “You know. Maybe I should call it off with him first. It might help matters.”

“It might,” he agrees even though he's mostly just at a loss.

~

Cosmo was sent by R.F. to find Don after he'd stormed off in the middle of the man's meltdown over Don and Kathy's split, but Cosmo isn't looking for his friend for R.F.'s sake. He wants to make sure he's okay. He finally tracks him down to the prop room, pacing a little. 

"Need a laugh?" Cosmo offers by way of announcing his presence.

Don stops and looks at him in a way that makes Cosmo's toes curl, but that's not needed right now. He comes further into the prop room until he's standing just in front of Don.

"If anyone could make me laugh right now, it'd be you," Don finally says, sounding a little hollow.

"Are you sure you made the right call?" Cosmo asks in concern.

"Cos, let's not start up on that again." Don shakes his head. "I'm telling you, I know what I'm doing. Or maybe I don't." He throws up his hands in defeat and paces away again.

"Well, with those odds..." Cosmo starts, but then decides to change direction. "Don, just be honest with me. I'm your friend remember? If you can't tell me, who can you tell? What's this about?"

Don faces him again and for a moment silence hangs in the space around them.

“I love you.”

“See was that so hard,” Cosmo says thoughtlessly and then in one quick breath adds, “wait _what_!?” His eyebrows shoot up to his forehead. 

Don smiles that toothy and entirely impish smile of his. He strides back over and takes hold of one of Cosmo’s hands with both of his.

“I love you. I love you. I love you!” He declares in a ham actor's voice that sounds a little like music for so long as Cosmo has wanted to hear such sentiments directed at him.

“Oh, well, if that's all,” he says with a wide shrug and looking down at nothing in particular so long as it's not Don's gaze. He wonders at how he can even manage to sound so casual when his heart is beating louder than a tam-tam in his ears.

Don lets go only to move his hands up to Cosmo's shoulders and he has to meet the actor's gaze then. They hold that gaze for how long Cosmo isn't even sure. He only knows they've stared into each others' eyes countless times, but he’s never let himself have as much traitorous hope as he has now.

“All joking aside, Cos, I love you. And I should have realized it sooner.”

Cosmo nods a few times. “Not to ruin the moment, Don, but what made you realize it now?”

“Being with Kathy,” Don answers without hesitation. “I’ve always been attracted to men. Thought that was obvious to those who really know me." Cosmo doesn't say anything because he can't trust himself to be a neutral judge on that matter. "But since I'm not repulsed by women I figured if I could just find a nice girl, someone just so, then maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. I was wrong."

Cosmo twists his mouth up to one side for a moment. "Or maybe it's just not Kathy," he suggests.

"Well if it wasn't her it's not likely to be any other woman, Cos. She's pretty perfect and at the end of the day I can't love her more than... Well, like a good friend, I guess."

"And you're sure it's me?" Cosmo counters. "Maybe you're just fickle," he says, trying not to sound bitter as he simultaneously tries to move away. He grabs one of the props and tosses it up in the air before catching it, studying it, and setting it back down.

“You idiot,” Don says fondly and grabs his hand, pulling him back around. “Let me make this clearer. I’m saying I've always been attracted _to you_. I just didn't know how far gone I was until…"

"Until…?" Cosmo prompts.

"Until I started thinking about things. Really thinking about them. Thinking about how Kathy's kisses are nice, but they don’t stop me from wanting yours more. Thinking about how I can make love to Kathy all I want, but she'll never be you." There's a long pause and it's all Cosmo can do to hold himself back after declarations like that. "Look, Cos, I understand if you don't feel the same way, but I'm on the level here.”

Cosmo sighs and shakes his head. “Don, if I didn't feel the same way don't you think I would have told you so by now? Or at least socked you in the eye?” He adds it with an amused grin.

“Like you could," Don teases him.

“Oh yeah?” Cosmo raises a playful fist.

“Yeah,” Don insists.

Cosmo chortles and lets his fist fall. “You're right. I'd probably miss and sock you in the kisser instead and what good would that do me?” He asks with a smile.

Don doesn't seem to need any other hints because he captures Cosmo's lips immediately. Cosmo closes his eyes as Don grabs his arms and pulls him closer. Don's lips are thick and warm against his thinner ones and Cosmo, maybe because he's a little bit of a sap, wants the kiss to go on forever. He wants Don to take more, take it all, he always has, but his senses come back to him and he pulls away sharply.

"Don, don't do this to me," he pleads. "Because I don't want to get used to this. Not if you're just going to wake up one day and realize I'm not what you thought or that you and I can't have the same happy ending you'd get with Kathy."

" _An_ ending, Cos," Don retorts. "Sure, we'd be great pals, but Kathy deserves better than that and you know I'm a selfish bastard. I want more than that. Eventually I'd just be miserable and I'd likely make her miserable and then where would we both be?"

Cosmo sighs. He wants to give in. He wants to let himself believe that everything Don is trying to convince him of is true. He practically needs it all to be true.

"You'd both be where every other couple is," he finally answers in a derisive tone. "The divorce rate in this town is higher than the stocks."

Don smiles and Cosmo furrows his brow at how he can find it amusing. Don then shrugs.

"So I'm just cutting to the chase. Besides, Kathy wouldn't take me back now anyhow. She called it off."

Cosmo's eyes widen in realization. "She figured it out didn't she?"

"Yeah and what's more she's in our corner."

"I gathered that," Cosmo mumbles as he remembers his lunch with her. "She's something else."

"So let's not disappoint her," Don says with that cheeky wide smile of his that Cosmo can almost never say no to.

"I might still regret this…" He protests weakly just to protest, knowing there's no use in it.

"It's for keeps, Cos," Don says quickly, taking him off guard. "I mean it. It wasn't the wedding bells that were giving me cold feet. It was just the last push I needed because I'd marry _you_ if I could."

It's the last thing that Cosmo is expecting and he sees the sparkle of truth in Don's eyes. He can't help himself, can't fight his heart and so surges forward and initiates another kiss. Don wraps his arms around him this time and Cosmo reciprocates. Almost immediately it's more wanton than before. And it's like one of their dances as their lips slide together and their tongues join in at the right time, discovering the perfect steps. Don is practically pushing him against some table with props on it and Cosmo decides he's more than okay with that.

Still, he pulls away from the kiss slightly and says, "It'll be a risk to your reputation if anyone finds out."

"What reputation?" Don counters and kisses him again. They go on for a few moments.

"Confirmed bachelorhood," Cosmo tries again, but it's too late for him anyhow.

"Sounds nice."

"Hiding in dark corners and locked rooms."

"Not seeing the problem here."

At that Cosmo laughs and shrugs.

"Frankly, neither am I."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm aware this isn't great. It's a completely unedited thing I wrote in a waiting room yesterday. They showed _Singin' In The Rain_ on TCM the other night and I just had to start experimenting with Cosmo and Don so I can get them down enough to hopefully write a full length AUish fanfic idea I have in the future.


End file.
